The staff of the agency charged with overseeing land use and transportation planning for northeastern Illinois is recommending against the construction of a new toll road connecting interstates in Illinois and Indiana.

The proposal for the Illiana Corridor is “broadly incompatible with the overall goals and recommendations” of the region’s long-range master plan, the staff at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning said in a report issued this morning.

Building the Illiana would “expose the State of Illinois to extensive financial risk” due to the proposed toll road’s estimated cost and potential financing structure, the report found.

The Illiana, a project strongly pushed by Gov. Pat Quinn, would be a 47-mile toll road cutting across southern Will County and linking Interstates 55, 57 and 65 in Indiana.

The Illiana would be a bi-state project but built as a public-private partnership -- the first of its kind in Illinois – meaning that private investors would likely put up the money to construct the road and operate it. It would not be built as part of the Illinois Tollway system.

The Illinois Department of Transportation estimates that the Illiana would cost $1.25 billion. No state or federal money has been earmarked for the Illiana’s construction, and experts say none is likely.

The report’s recommendation will now be considered next month by two panels, the CMAP board and the MPO Policy Committee, which will decide the Illiana’s fate.

The boards will consider including the Illiana in the region’s master plan at their meetings on October 9 and 17, respectively.

In its 19-page report, CMAP’s staff said the master plan, called GO TO 2040, acknowledges that some new transportation capacity is needed in northeastern Illinois, but that the Illiana does not fit within the plan’s priorities.

“Through the GO TO 2040 process, the region established a realistic set of high-priority transportation investments based on clear strategies for improving mobility, accessibility, and overall economic prosperity across the region. Inclusion of the Illiana Corridor on GO TO 2040's list of fiscally constrained projects would be inconsistent with the region's commitment to its own clearly established priorities,” the report said.

The report cites four specific issues that it said should be considered by the CMAP Board and MPO Policy Committee as they consider whether to approve adding the Illiana to the master plan.

According to the report, they are:

1) Financial Risk. The proposed facility’s estimated cost and potential financing structure expose the State of Illinois to extensive financial risk. The information provided to justify the project’s financial viability has been incomplete and largely anecdotal.

2) Contradictory Growth Assumptions. To estimate performance of the facility, IDOT has used growth projections that are not consistent with GO TO 2040 forecasts, which are based on the need to direct investment toward existing communities. The IDOT forecasts essentially show what is likely to result if GO TO 2040 is not implemented, with negative impacts on livability, mobility, and natural resources.

3) Unsubstantiated Economic Development Potential. The proposed facility’s ability to spur or support economic growth remains unclear because existing nearby development is minimal. The selected corridor alignment is not located near the existing residential and commercial centers to the north that are necessary for sustained job creation and economic development.

4) Limited Benefits to Regional Mobility. The proposed Illiana Corridor achieves negligible impacts on regional transportation performance, making it a lower priority than the planned GO TO 2040 investments that do address the region’s congestion challenges.